‘Lie of the Year’ is Mitt Romney’s Jeeps Made in China Claim

(Photo : Reuters) Former Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s claim that Jeep is going to move its U.S. production to China at the cost of American jobs has been chosen as the Lie of the Year by fact-checking organization PolitiFact.

After losing the U.S. presidential election, Mitt Romney has practically disappeared from public view.

But fact-checking organization PolitiFact has once again brought the Republican to the limelight by choosing one of his claims during the election as the "Lie Of The Year."

Romney's claim that President Barack Obama sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China at the cost of American jobs proved fatal, as this falsehood was one of the reasons why he couldn't turn the tide in his favor in Ohio, a crucial swing state. And this claim is PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year."

"It was a lie told in the critical state of Ohio in the final days of a close campaign -- that Jeep was moving its U.S. production to China," PolitiFact said in its report. "Even though Jeep's parent company gave a quick and clear denial, Mitt Romney repeated it and his campaign turned it into a TV ad.

"And they stood by the claim, even as the media and the public expressed collective outrage against something so obviously false."

However, Romney supporters weren't the only ones resorting to lies. The fact-checking organization's report showed that the Obama administration was also dishonest during their re-election campaign. Take for instance, one of Obama's television advertisements that insisted Romney wanted to ban all abortions, whereas the Republican candidate has often said he would allow exceptions for cases of rape and incest.

Similarly, the Obama administration had also distorted Romney's stand on immigration in an attempt to portray the contender's views as extreme.

Interestingly, this is the first time an issue other than healthcare has become the "Lie of the Year." Several claims, such as the Republicans voted to end Medicare and that the federal health care law was a government takeover of health care, were chosen as the "Lie of the Year" in 2011 and 2010 respectively.